Valjoux is one of the most venerated names in Swiss watch making history.  For nearly 100 years, Valjoux was a manufacturer of watch ebauches and complete movements. From the 1920s to the 1960s, Valjoux movements were the choice of some of the most prestigious watch manufacturers in Switzerland.. During the Quartz Revolution of the late 1970sand 1980s, the existence of mechanical movement manufacturers and smaller watch companies in Switzerland came under threat from this new, inexpensive and accurate timekeeping technology from Japan. 

In the midst of this watch market upheaval in Switzerland, Valjoux released a new automatic chronograph movement for which it is so well known to this day--the 7750.  The self-winding 7750 was designed for precision timekeeping while being both rugged and economical to manufacture. The Valjoux 7750 was also adaptable and became the basis for numerous variants of this movement; this made it extremely popular with many Swiss watch companies. And, the 7750 ebauche, if you will, serves as the heart of many of the in-house calibres of Switzerland's top-tier watch manufacturers.

Within ETA, Valjoux in Neuchatel continued to manufacture movements and the name Valjoux was always associated with the calibre, i.e. Valjoux 7750.  The 7750 became one of ETA's strongest sellers, year in and year out. In the 1980s the automatic mechanical movement proved most popular and ETA chose to phase out manual wind movements from the Valjoux line. Another change took place within ETA and the Swatch Group which owns ETA.  The name Valjoux disappeared from its literature and did not appear in its webpages.  (The same happened with Unitas and most recently Lemania). The ETA catalog today lists the calibre as the ETA 7750. 

Chronograph watch enthusiasts, however, have always referred to this calibre as the Valjoux 7750 and probably always will.  Valjoux manufactured many remarkable watch movements during the 20th century, but little information exists on the history of Valjoux and the movements it manufactured.  The Valjoux Reference Site was conceived to fill this information void.  It will grow over the months and years as a resource for all those watch enthusiasts who have admired the magnificent mechanical movements made by Valjoux.

Anthony Young, webmaster

December 2, 2007